HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The Canton Coup of 20 March 1926, also known as the or the was a purge of
Communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, ...
elements of the
Nationalist army The National Revolutionary Army (NRA; ), sometimes shortened to Revolutionary Army () before 1928, and as National Army () after 1928, was the military arm of the Kuomintang (KMT, or the Chinese Nationalist Party) from 1925 until 1947 in China ...
in
Guangzhou Guangzhou (, ; ; or ; ), also known as Canton () and Chinese postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Kwongchow or Kwangchow, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Guangdong Provinces of China, province in South China, sou ...
(then
romanized Romanization or romanisation, in linguistics, is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, and ...
as "Canton") undertaken by
Chiang Kai-shek Chiang Kai-shek (31 October 1887 – 5 April 1975), also known as Chiang Chung-cheng and Jiang Jieshi, was a Chinese Nationalist politician, revolutionary, and military leader who served as the leader of the Republic of China (ROC) from 1928 ...
. The incident solidified Chiang's power immediately before the successful
Northern Expedition The Northern Expedition was a military campaign launched by the National Revolutionary Army (NRA) of the Kuomintang (KMT), also known as the "Chinese Nationalist Party", against the Beiyang government and other regional warlords in 1926. The ...
, turning him into the paramount leader of the country.


History


Background

At the time of the incident, the
Nationalist Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Th ...
and
Communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, ...
parties of China were working together as part of the
First United Front The First United Front (; alternatively ), also known as the KMT–CCP Alliance, of the Kuomintang (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), was formed in 1924 as an alliance to end warlordism in China. Together they formed the National Revo ...
, allied against the local warlords who were carving the country into fiefdoms. The
Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...
was working with both groups and notably bankrolling
Guangzhou Guangzhou (, ; ; or ; ), also known as Canton () and Chinese postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Kwongchow or Kwangchow, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Guangdong Provinces of China, province in South China, sou ...
's
Whampoa Military Academy The Republic of China Military Academy () is the service academy for the army of the Republic of China, located in Fengshan District, Kaohsiung. Previously known as the the military academy produced commanders who fought in many of China ...
. It had assisted
Sun Yat-sen Sun Yat-sen (; also known by several other names; 12 November 1866 – 12 March 1925)Singtao daily. Saturday edition. 23 October 2010. section A18. Sun Yat-sen Xinhai revolution 100th anniversary edition . was a Chinese politician who serve ...
in regaining control of
Guangdong Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020 ...
; after his death from cancer in 1925, the Nationalists began a protracted leadership struggle that included interprovincial war. The assassination of
Liao Zhongkai Liao Zhongkai (April 23, 1877 – August 20, 1925) was a Chinese-American Kuomintang leader and financier. He was the principal architect of the first Kuomintang–Chinese Communist Party (KMT–CCP) United Front in the 1920s. He was assassina ...
led to
Hu Hanmin Hu Hanmin (; born in Panyu, Guangdong, Qing dynasty, China, 9 December 1879 – Kwangtung, Republic of China, 12 May 1936) was a Chinese philosopher and politician who was one of the early conservative right factional leaders in the Kuomintang ...
's ouster and the promotion of
Chiang Kai-shek Chiang Kai-shek (31 October 1887 – 5 April 1975), also known as Chiang Chung-cheng and Jiang Jieshi, was a Chinese Nationalist politician, revolutionary, and military leader who served as the leader of the Republic of China (ROC) from 1928 ...
, then commandant of the military academy, to commander of the
National Revolutionary Army The National Revolutionary Army (NRA; ), sometimes shortened to Revolutionary Army () before 1928, and as National Army () after 1928, was the military arm of the Kuomintang (KMT, or the Chinese Nationalist Party) from 1925 until 1947 in China ...
. There were plans for a northern offensive against the warlords, but leadership remained divided—principally between the right-wing Chiang and the left-wing
Wang Jingwei Wang Jingwei (4 May 1883 – 10 November 1944), born as Wang Zhaoming and widely known by his pen name Jingwei, was a Chinese politician. He was initially a member of the left wing of the Kuomintang, leading a government in Wuhan in oppositi ...
. With support from the Soviets and the Communists, the left wing looked ascendant: Hu had said the Nationalists' ultimate goal was
socialism Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes th ...
and the January 1926 party conference had placed Communists in strategic posts and the party apparently "almost wholly under leftist control".


Incident

The
coastal defense ship Coastal defence ships (sometimes called coastal battleships or coast defence ships) were warships built for the purpose of coastal defence, mostly during the period from 1860 to 1920. They were small, often cruiser-sized warships that sacrifi ...
SS '' Yongfeng'' had been renamed the SS ''Zhongshan'' (
romanized Romanization or romanisation, in linguistics, is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, and ...
at the time as ''Chung Shan'') in honor of
Sun Yat-sen Sun Yat-sen (; also known by several other names; 12 November 1866 – 12 March 1925)Singtao daily. Saturday edition. 23 October 2010. section A18. Sun Yat-sen Xinhai revolution 100th anniversary edition . was a Chinese politician who serve ...
following his death. It was the most powerful ship in the Nationalist navy. Its captain, Li Zhilong, was a
Communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, ...
, working with a
Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
naval advisor. They had moved his warship to Guangzhou to support uprisings in the area, alarming the Nationalists. On the night of 18/19 March it suddenly relocated from Guangzhou to anchorage off
Changzhou Changzhou ( Changzhounese: ''Zaon Tsei'', ) is a prefecture-level city in southern Jiangsu province, China. It was previously known as Yanling, Lanling and Jinling. Located on the southern bank of the Yangtze River, Changzhou borders the provin ...
("Dane's Island"). It then sailed back the next day. In his subsequent reports, Chiang stated that he became alarmed when the ship's commander claimed to be acting on orders from him, which he had never given. His suspicions were further increased by numerous odd phone calls.
Chen Jieru Chen Jieru (; 26 August 1906 – 21 January 1971), also spelled Ch'en Chieh-ju, was the second wife of Chiang Kai-shek. She was nicknamed Jennie. Chen's ancestral hometown was Ningpo (Ningbo), Chekiang (Zhejiang) Province, and she was born in ...
reported that Wang's wife Chen Bijun had called her five times on the 18th to check Chiang's schedule. Xu Zhen reported repeated calls by
Deng Yanda Deng Yanda (, 1 March 1895 – 29 November 1931) was a military officer in the Chinese Nationalist Party. He broke with party leaders in 1927, denouncing them as traitors to the party's original principles and in 1930 attempted to form a new party, ...
, Whampoa's political director, inquiring when Chiang would next ride to
Changzhou Changzhou ( Changzhounese: ''Zaon Tsei'', ) is a prefecture-level city in southern Jiangsu province, China. It was previously known as Yanling, Lanling and Jinling. Located on the southern bank of the Yangtze River, Changzhou borders the provin ...
; upon Chiang telling him it wouldn't be soon, Li Zhilong called him to report Deng's order to depart. Li Dongfang stated that Chiang never explained who had made the repeated calls but thought it to have been Wang Jingwei. In reaction, Chiang purchased a ticket on a Japanese steamer to
Shantou Shantou, alternately romanized as Swatow and sometimes known as Santow, is a prefecture-level city on the eastern coast of Guangdong, China, with a total population of 5,502,031 as of the 2020 census (5,391,028 in 2010) and an administrative ...
but ultimately decided to fight rather than run.
Andrei Bubnov Andrei Sergeyevich Bubnov (russian: Андре́й Серге́евич Бу́бнов; 23 March 1883 – 1 August 1938) was a Russian Bolshevik revolutionary leader, one of Bolshevik leaders in Ukraine, Soviet politician and military leade ...
, head of the Soviet mission in Guangzhou, noted in his reports that the incident was due to an abortive putsch mistakenly pursued by some of the Communist commanders in the
Nationalist army The National Revolutionary Army (NRA; ), sometimes shortened to Revolutionary Army () before 1928, and as National Army () after 1928, was the military arm of the Kuomintang (KMT, or the Chinese Nationalist Party) from 1925 until 1947 in China ...
. On 20 March 1926 Chiang declared martial law and cut off Guangzhou's phone network. He used Nationalist troops and cadets from the
Whampoa Military Academy The Republic of China Military Academy () is the service academy for the army of the Republic of China, located in Fengshan District, Kaohsiung. Previously known as the the military academy produced commanders who fought in many of China ...
(where he was commandant) to arrest its Communist political commissars. Chen Zhaoying, Chen Ce and Ouyang Ge arrested Li Zhilong in his bedroom at dawn and secured the warship, with Jiang Dingwen taking Li's place at the Navy Bureau.
Wu Tiecheng Wu Tiecheng (; 1893–1953) was a politician in the Republic of China. He served as Mayor of Shanghai, Governor of Guangdong province, and was the Vice Premier and Foreign Minister in 1948–1949. After communists were purged from the Kuomi ...
and Hui Dongsheng surrounded the residences of Wang Jingwei and the Soviet advisors, effectively placing them under
house arrest In justice and law, house arrest (also called home confinement, home detention, or, in modern times, electronic monitoring) is a measure by which a person is confined by the authorities to their residence. Travel is usually restricted, if al ...
.
Deng Yanda Deng Yanda (, 1 March 1895 – 29 November 1931) was a military officer in the Chinese Nationalist Party. He broke with party leaders in 1927, denouncing them as traitors to the party's original principles and in 1930 attempted to form a new party, ...
was arrested. Hui also surrounded the Guangzhou–Hong Kong Strike Committee. Liu Zhi arrested Communists in the 2nd Division and those at Whampoa or in the 1st Corps—including
Zhou Enlai Zhou Enlai (; 5 March 1898 – 8 January 1976) was a Chinese statesman and military officer who served as the first premier of the People's Republic of China from 1 October 1949 until his death on 8 January 1976. Zhou served under Chairman M ...
—were arrested and later expelled following " Three Principles" orientation. Two garrisons were removed. Chiang's men also disarmed the Communists' paramilitary Workers' Guard. Gen. Victor Rogacheff, the head of the Soviet military mission at Guangzhou, fled to
Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), Chinese postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the Capital city, capital of the China, People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's Li ...
but Vasily Blyukher, the military consultant to the Nationalists, and
Mikhail Borodin Mikhail Markovich Gruzenberg, known by the alias Borodin, zh, 鮑羅廷 (9 July 1884 – 29 May 1951), was a Bolshevik revolutionary and Communist International (Comintern) agent. He was an advisor to Sun Yat-sen and the Kuomintang (KMT) in ...
, the political consultant helping to remake the KMT into a Leninist organization, were both arrested; Borodin's assistant Kassanga (pseudonym of Nikolay Kuibyshev) was expelled on the 24th. Wang Jingwei, who had a high fever at the time, was visited by
Chen Gongbo Chen Gongbo (; Japanese: ''Chin Kōhaku''; October 19, 1892 – June 3, 1946) was a Chinese politician, noted for his role as second (and final) President of the collaborationist Wang Jingwei regime during World War II. Biography Chen Gongbo ...
;
Tan Yankai Tan Yankai (; ; January 25, 1880 – September 22, 1930) was a Chinese politician. Biography Tan Yankai was born on 25 January 1880 in Hangzhou during the waning decades of the Qing dynasty. He was the son of the Qing minister Tan Zhonglin ...
, head of the 2nd Corps;
Zhu Peide Zhu or ZHU may refer to: *Zhu (surname), common Chinese surnames * Zhu River, or Pearl River, in southern China * Zhu (state), ancient Chinese state, later renamed Zou *House of Zhu, the ruling house of the Ming dynasty in Chinese history * Zhu (s ...
(3rd Corps);
Li Jishen Li Jishen or Li Chi-shen (5 November 1885 – 9 October 1959) was a Chinese military officer and politician, general of the National Revolutionary Army of the Republic of China, Vice Chairman of the People's Republic of China (1949–1954 ...
(4th Corps); and
T. V. Soong Soong Tse-vung, more commonly romanized as Soong Tse-ven or Soong Tzu-wen (; 4 December 1894 – 25 April 1971), was a prominent businessman and politician in the early 20th-century Republic of China, who served as Premier. His father was Char ...
, the minister of finance. Wang was indignant and some of the others felt Chiang was overreacting, but the Nationalist Executive Committee convened at the house on 22 March and a compromise was reached in which Wang would take a vacation abroad in the near future.


Aftermath

The Canton Coup effectively ended the efforts of the Chinese Communists and Soviets to undermine the Nationalists through steady work to strengthen the party's left wing at the expense of its right. As the Soviets were anxious to maintain their influence and Chiang had need of their help in the upcoming Northern Expedition, however, he and A.S. Bubnov negotiated a new accord. The Soviets would maintain some advisors and provide support but recall Kuibishev, provide a list of Communist members in the KMT and accept that Communists would no longer hold top cabinet positions. On 3 April a public telegram from Chiang stated that the affair was a "limited and individual matter" of "a small number of members of our Party who had carried out an anti-revolutionary plot". He removed some right-wingers from leadership, including
Wu Tiecheng Wu Tiecheng (; 1893–1953) was a politician in the Republic of China. He served as Mayor of Shanghai, Governor of Guangdong province, and was the Vice Premier and Foreign Minister in 1948–1949. After communists were purged from the Kuomi ...
, and criticized the
Western Hills Group The Western Hills Group was a faction of the Chinese Nationalist Party, or KMT, active in the 1920s. The faction was formed at a meeting of KMT leaders opposed to communist influence held at Biyun Temple in the Western Hills district of Beijing in ...
. He also forbade right-wing demonstrations and never publicly questioned the United Front.
Trotsky Lev Davidovich Bronstein. ( – 21 August 1940), better known as Leon Trotsky; uk, link= no, Лев Давидович Троцький; also transliterated ''Lyev'', ''Trotski'', ''Trotskij'', ''Trockij'' and ''Trotzky''. (), was a Russian M ...
in Russia and the central committees of the Communist parties in Shanghai and Guangdong all opposed the arrangement with Chiang, but
Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...
backed it. On May 15 the Nationalists required the Communists "not to entertain any doubt on or criticize Dr Sun or his principles"; to provide lists of their members within the Nationalist Party; to not exceed one-third of the membership of any municipal, provincial or central party committee; and not to serve as the head of any government department or party. The same session formalized Chiang's leadership of the party and army, ending civilian oversight of the Nationalist military. "Emergency decrees" soon expanded Chiang's power for the duration of the Northern Expedition, although his direct control of the military remained partial owing to its regional composition and divided loyalties. On 7 April
Wang Jingwei Wang Jingwei (4 May 1883 – 10 November 1944), born as Wang Zhaoming and widely known by his pen name Jingwei, was a Chinese politician. He was initially a member of the left wing of the Kuomintang, leading a government in Wuhan in oppositi ...
resigned his posts and announced he would travel abroad; he left for France secretly on May 11. Bubnov was recalled to Russia the same month. Wang finally returned in April of the next year, invited by
Borodin Alexander Porfiryevich Borodin ( rus, link=no, Александр Порфирьевич Бородин, Aleksandr Porfir’yevich Borodin , p=ɐlʲɪkˈsandr pɐrˈfʲi rʲjɪvʲɪtɕ bərɐˈdʲin, a=RU-Alexander Porfiryevich Borodin.ogg, ...
to counter Chiang's success.
Zhou Enlai Zhou Enlai (; 5 March 1898 – 8 January 1976) was a Chinese statesman and military officer who served as the first premier of the People's Republic of China from 1 October 1949 until his death on 8 January 1976. Zhou served under Chairman M ...
, removed from his posts in Guangzhou, travelled to Shanghai, where he organized strikes by hundreds of thousands of factory workers in February and March 1927.


Controversy

The
Communists Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
denied that there was any plot against Chiang and that his actions were simply intended to remove the left-wing
Wang Jingwei Wang Jingwei (4 May 1883 – 10 November 1944), born as Wang Zhaoming and widely known by his pen name Jingwei, was a Chinese politician. He was initially a member of the left wing of the Kuomintang, leading a government in Wuhan in oppositi ...
from influence over the
army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...
and Guangzhou's important military academy. Historians disagree on whether the incident was plotted by Chiang Kai-shek, was a Communist plot to kidnap him and remove him to
Vladivostok Vladivostok ( rus, Владивосто́к, a=Владивосток.ogg, p=vɫədʲɪvɐˈstok) is the largest city and the administrative center of Primorsky Krai, Russia. The city is located around the Golden Horn Bay on the Sea of Japan, ...
, or whether the whole affair was merely "a series of miscommunications, misunderstandings, faulty telephone connections and personal rivalries among junior staff".


See also

*
Shanghai massacre of 1927 The Shanghai massacre of 12 April 1927, the April 12 Purge or the April 12 Incident as it is commonly known in China, was the violent suppression of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) organizations and leftist elements in Shanghai by forces supporti ...
* Warlord Era *
March 18 Massacre The March 18 Massacre (三·一八惨案) was a massacre that took place on 18 March 1926, amid an anti-warlord and anti-imperialist demonstration in Beijing, China. The date, March 18, was referred to by Chinese writer Lu Xun as the "darkest day ...


Notes


References


Citations


Sources

* . * . * . * . * . * . *


External links

* . {{authority control Warlord Era 1926 in China Guangzhou Kuomintang